Web site analytics involves the analysis and reporting of web site traffic data to an associated publisher. A publisher is an entity that owns and/or manages a particular web site. The publisher can monitor web site analytics data related to user visits and links to the web site by using web site analytics tools provided by third parties.
Existing web site analytics data systems work well for processing a high volume of web traffic data in order to provide interactive reports over substantial periods of time with high fidelity. However, these systems incur a high level of latency from hit occurrence to hit reporting, and also do not allow reports to segment in a fine and granular time basis. Consequently, existing web site analytics data systems have difficulty in monitoring sudden spikes or drops in traffic, or for tracking, for example, a propagation of a link to the publisher's web site over a social networking site, which can typically unfold in a time period of minutes.
Furthermore, the high latency of web site analytics reporting makes it more difficult for publishers to implement web site analytics on their web sites. Because it takes a longer period of time to report analytics data for a web site to publishers, publishers are unable to react to web traffic data for their web site in a timely manner. Furthermore, because it takes a longer period of time for reports to show up, publishers also often fail to notice any erroneous deployment of web site analytics tracking code on associated web sites.